Purpose Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Directed by Phylicia Rashad Hayes Theatre May 16, 2025 Production website 💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Purpose begins the evening with its protagonist waning the audience to, “Buckle up,” and he is not kidding. On stage we are about to experience three hours lacerating, biting and totally unforgettable family drama. At first, you believe you are going to go down the well-worn path of a conventional family reunion. The snow is falling, roads are closed, and the wayward son has returned. But it is here that playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins takes a most distinct point of view: he introduces black history and his peerless use of language to plumet this funny, deep and provocative work. Purpose is a dramatic vivisection of the Jasper family and so much more.
Bowl EP Written and directed by Nazareth Hassan Music by Free Fool Vineyard Theatre May 15, 2025 Production website 💉💉 out of 5.
Bowl EP and the National Black Theatre – – – from all I could read about it going into the production was NOT going to be a production geared to my demographic – but that wasn’t going to stop me from going to seeing the production and expanding my theatrical repertoire. I love challenging myself as an audience member. The play sells itself as follows: Kelly K Klarkson and Quentavius da Quitter need to find a name for their rap group. Through flirty interludes, cringy overshares and practicing their “ollies”, they grow increasingly closer. Skating and Smoking. Skating and Drinking. Skating and exorcising a demon. With live skateboarding and original music, enter Bowl EP:
Eurydice Written by Sarah Ruhl Directed by Les Waters Signature Theatre May 13, 2025 Production website 💉💉 out of 5.
Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl is a very popular play – – done by colleges and high schools around the county – one that I have seen many, many times. I was very much looking forward to seeing my first professional production of the play. I wish I had a better first professional showing than this one. The story is a most familiar one – it is the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and their ill fated love story. Orpheus and Eurydice are young lovers in the land of the living, but soon in the story Eurydice dies on her wedding day. Orpheus then descends into the underworld to bring her back – – – but is given one condition: he cannot look back at her on their journey back to the upper world or he risks loosing her forever. Just as they are about to reach the land of the living, Orpheus, doubting Eurydice is truly behind him, turns to look, which causes her to vanish back into the Underworld.
Eureka Day Written by Jonathan Spector Directed by Anna D. Shapiro Manhattan Theatre Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre February 12, 2025 Production website 💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Eureka Day was a terrific, hilarious, and timely way to spend the afternoon in the theatre. The play is a rather biting satire of a progressive elementary school thrown into turmoil by a sudden mumps outbreak. The Board of Directors, known for their commitment to consensus and mutual respect, find themselves in the eye of a storm, grappling with divergent viewpoints and tensions. Their debate over whether to maintain their liberal vaccination stance or impose mandates that could fracture the community forms the crux of the drama.
Nicole Scherzinger Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard Book and Lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton Directed by Jamie Lloyd St. James Theatre January 1, 2025 Production website 💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
It comes down to a debate whether you like your Sunset Blvd with a lavish set that becomes a morbid decrepit character, much like its protagonist Norma Desmond – – – or whether you prefer the stripped bare, sexy, sleek, dangerous stage and Norma of the current Sunset. I must admit that it is a bit odd to see this Norma as so much younger and more attractive than Normas of the past but this reiteration of Norma sure gets at the psychotic killer that Norma soon becomes.
